About
Starting Semester: Fall 2026Assigned: No
Location: Stockholm
Iceheart AB
Client Profile
A Swedish technology company building cooling that lasts.Iceheart is a Swedish technology company developing a new generation of energy-efficient cooling solutions. Developed in Sweden by a team of experienced engineers, our technology stores cooling in ice—making reliable cooling available when and where it is needed most.
Our ambition is to transform cooling across cold storage, HVAC, transport, data centres and other energy-intensive applications.
Project Description
PROJECT: Facility Cooling DevelopmentIceheart AB has developed a proprietary ice-based thermal energy storage technology, independently tested by Swegon (a multi-billion-dollar Scandinavian ventilation and cooling leader) with results exceeding expectations. We are proposing a Georgia Tech Senior Design collaboration to evaluate the economic and operational case for this technology in large-scale data center cooling applications - one of the fastest-growing infrastructure challenges in the United States.
This proposal follows a two-stage structure: an early analysis-framework and scoping milestone (targeted for around November 2026), followed by a final analytical deliverable (end of April 2027) presenting a validated techno-economic assessment based on Iceheart-provided performance data.
Working principle: Iceheart defines the engineering problem, the desired capability, relevant constraints, and the required analysis of performance. Georgia Tech evaluates alternative analytical approaches, determines the appropriate analysis methodology, develops the model, and validates its conclusions.
This project focuses on the core technical and economic case for establishing Iceheart as a scalable thermal management platform for data centers. Additional benefits - including thermal energy storage and grid integration, renewable-energy load shifting, peak cooling capacity, reduced water consumption, waste-heat recovery, central plant downsizing, and geographic flexibility in renewable-energy sourcing - are expected to emerge from, or be enabled by, these core capabilities. They are treated as system-level benefits and evaluation considerations rather than the primary engineering objective.
Sponsor point of contact: Jan Sjöberg (CTO, Iceheart AB). Iceheart will provide technical documentation, prior test data (including independent Swegon validation results), and engineering support throughout each project.
Room-level / facility-scale thermal management for data centers
ASSIGNMENT
Using performance and operating data provided by Iceheart AB for its ice-based thermal storage and cold-air extraction system, analyze and evaluate the feasibility of this technology as a facility-level (room-level) data center cooling alternative to conventional CRAC/CRAH systems, and develop a techno-economic comparison framework.
OBJECTIVE
Using Iceheart-provided technical and performance data, assess the system's economic and operational competitiveness under representative data center facility loads, and produce recommendations on system sizing, integration, and the conditions under which this approach is economically advantageous.
BACKGROUND
Iceheart's core technology stores thermal energy as ice and releases it as cold air on demand, decoupling cooling capacity from real-time compressor operation. Iceheart is exploring extending this, its most mature cooling application, into data center environments.
ENGINEERING CHALLENGE
Data centers require reliable facility-level thermal management across continuously varying compute loads, while conventional room-cooling systems can impose significant energy, infrastructure, and water requirements. Using technical and performance data provided by Iceheart, the challenge is to determine under what data-center load profiles, electricity-price conditions, facility configurations, and operating constraints Iceheart's approach provides an economic advantage over conventional CRAC/CRAH cooling, and to establish the practical integration and scaling considerations of that approach at the systems level.
KEY MILESTONES
Milestone 1 (November 2026) - Analysis Framework & Scoping:
Using baseline technical and operating data provided by Iceheart, complete the preliminary analysis framework, defining the economic/systems model structure, comparison methodology against CRAC/CRAH, and the analysis plan for the Spring 2027 deliverable.
Milestone 2 (April-May 2027) - Final Deliverable: A completed techno-economic analysis and decision-support model, using Iceheart-provided performance data, quantifying the economic and operational conditions under which Iceheart's approach outperforms conventional systems, presented at the Capstone Expo (April 27), followed by final client deliverables and documentation (due May 7).
SCOPE OF WORK
- Analysis of Iceheart-provided technical and performance data for thermal storage and cold-air delivery under representative data center load profiles
- Comparative economic analysis against conventional CRAC/CRAH systems, using Iceheart-provided data
- Integration study: footprint, retrofit potential, and facility-level integration considerations at the systems level, based on Iceheart-provided specifications
- Systems-level evaluation, including techno-economic modeling and life-cycle cost analysis, to determine the conditions under which Iceheart’s approach provides an economic advantage over conventional systems
- Identification of key variables affecting scalability and cost at larger deployment scales, based on Iceheart-provided data
EXPECTED DELIVERABLES
- Techno-economic analysis report with findings based on Iceheart-provided data
- System sizing and integration recommendations
- Recommendations identifying the conditions under which larger-scale deployment is economically favorable
SUCCESS CRITERIA
The project is successful if it produces a validated techno-economic analysis and decision-support model, based on data provided by Iceheart, that establishes a meaningful technical and economic comparison with conventional CRAC/CRAH systems and identifies the specific conditions under which Iceheart's approach is economically advantageous.